Skeleton Park Arts Festival began as a music festival in 2008. Over the last 15 years, it has grown into a multi-day event featuring visual artists, filmmakers, craftspeople, and other cultural groups with the aim to provide opportunities, exposure, and accessibility to local artists.
In 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival could no longer run as usual. Next Door was created in response to the need for a safe and creative activity for the community. As a temporary public art exhibition, Next Door showcased the work of local artists throughout the Skeleton Park neighbourhood in parks, on front lawns, in the streets, and even in trees.
The Skeleton Press is a local community-run newspaper. While the festival only runs for one weekend per year, the press is meant to serve as an ongoing, inclusive, vibrant, and diverse venue for conversation. A wide variety of topics are discussed in the press including contentious topics such as the housing crisis or the environment. The paper is distributed to households and sites around the area such as Little Free Libraries.
In 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival could no longer run as usual. Next Door was created in response to the need for a safe and creative activity for the community. As a temporary public art exhibition, Next Door showcased the work of local artists throughout the Skeleton Park neighbourhood in parks, on front lawns, in the streets, and even in trees.
The Skeleton Press is a local community-run newspaper. While the festival only runs for one weekend per year, the press is meant to serve as an ongoing, inclusive, vibrant, and diverse venue for conversation. A wide variety of topics are discussed in the press including contentious topics such as the housing crisis or the environment. The paper is distributed to households and sites around the area such as Little Free Libraries.
Nicholas Crombach, Every slated lot has a previous story, 2021, pressed flowers, plate glass, construction rubble
Nicholas Crombach's Every slated lot has a previous story became an unexpected site of debate about the roles of art in community when it was exhibited in Next Door in 2021. The words "Stop Gentrification" were anonymously spray-painted on the installation, raising a critical conversation about developments and housing in the Skeleton Park neighbourhood and across Katarokwi/Kingston, the very impetus of the work. The artist and organizers embraced this feedback instead of calling it vandalism.
Chris Miner, an established photographer in Katarokwi/Kingston, documented both iterations of Next Door. In the first iteration of the project, Chris also produced a photo essay for The Skeleton Press (issue 5). In the second iteration, SPAF facilitated a mentorship in which Chris took on an emerging photographer, Suleimy Rios Aguilar. Sule's mentorship culminated in the production of a photo essay in The Skeleton Press (issue 7) under the guidance of Chris Miner. Additionally, in 2021, a SPAF staff member produced polaroid documentation of the installations for their personal archive, in conversation with Chris' photo essay. View the essays below.